MILITARY SAVINGS TO RUSSIA?

The scaled-down, post-Cold War U.S. military is getting something of a test. Troops in Haiti are learning how to handle an "enemy" that is hard to define: mostly street thugs who have operated with the blessing of the military junta. And troops on alert for another showdown with Saddam Hussein are wondering whether they will get to finish a job many Americans think was left undone in the Persian Gulf War.

If this sounds peculiar, chalk it up to the new military, the one without a world to save from communism. But the oddities don't stop there. Consider these items:

-- The first soldiers to go to Haiti had only 15 rounds of ammunition each. One explanation is that the limited ammo was an attempt to hold down costs. Another explanation, a bit more tactical, is that ammunition was limited to hold down the weight of airlifting troops to the island. Either way, there is reason to wonder how effective the soldiers would have been in defending themselves if a real confrontation had occurred.

-- While cost-cutting is the order of the day for U.S. military planners, the Clinton administration is spending $160 million to buy homes for Russian soldiers as an incentive to get the former Soviet army out of Latvia. It is no secret that downsizing of the post-Cold War Russian military machine is an enormous economic jolt for career soldiers who now have no jobs and nowhere to live.

Somehow the cost difference between giving U.S. troops 15 rounds of ammunition to go to Haiti and the new homes for Russian soldiers doesn't add up.